The present invention relates to parts handling apparatus and, more particularly, to an apparatus and a method for moving parts from a supply and turnaround station to and from a machining station.
There are a great number of parts handling arms and robots in use in industry today. These devices include one, two or more arms adapted to pick up parts from one location and deliver them to another location. In some cases, due to the fixed length of the arm or arms, only one physical location at each loading or unloading station can be served by the particular arm. In a machining operation, such as a lathe, where high speed cutting of parts occurs, it is desirable to provide a parts handling arm which can both pick up a part which has been machined and insert a new part for machining in the same arm movement. It is also desirable in such operations to be able to withdraw the arm from the high speed machining location so that such machining operations can be closed off for protection of surrounding men and machinery.